This year’s theme was Hidden. Compartments, enclosures, hidden treasures. Makers were encouraged to play with the ideas of secrecy and mystery. The challenge inspiration was as follows: Show us your best mechanisms, fabrication techniques and creative use of a found object - all brought to life as a brooch or convertible pendant! And to make it more interesting: incorporate a surprising element for the viewer to discover.

In October, 200 participants each received the same 44-piece kit of sterling silver, copper, and brass supplies. They were required to use at least half the kit materials plus a found object. Part of the fun is identifying the same kit pieces that appear throughout the exhibition. How many can you find?

All revenue from the kit sales benefited SNAG. Proceeds from the sales of finished jewelry during this online exhibition will be split between the artist and SNAG. All pieces shown are available for sale and can be purchased through the website.
Click on each image (link below) to see detail photos and a video unveiling of the surprise element of each design.http://www.snagspace.org/2018-halstead-design-challenge

A juried selection of 29 pieces was recently exhibited at the SNAG Conference in Portland, OR. Winners and runners-up in the challenge were announced from the main stage along with slides of the recognized submissions.

Winners:
1st Place - Jill Tower for Koi Fish.
2nd Place - Stacy Rodgers for Reliquary to the One in Eight.
3rd Place - Corin Herzog for Keeping It Hidden.

Jurors:Hilary Halstead Scott
President of Halstead, a wholesale supplier of jewelry chain and materials that was established in 1973. The family owned and operated firm supplies thousands of jewelry artists around the globe. Scott is passionate about helping small jewelry businesses and entrepreneurs. To that end, she founded the Halstead Grant in 2005. The Halstead Grant is a business development program that awards start-up cash and recognition to an emerging jewelry artist each year. The rigorous application process is designed to encourage sound business practices in the jewelry industry. Scott has an MBA and a Masters in International Management. She worked in Madrid, Spain prior to returning to the family business. She is an active member of SNAG and the Women Presidents Organization.

Jim Bové
A practicing artist, educator and former board member of SNAG. He has organized and curated several international exhibitions and lectures between the United States and Japan, including the cross-cultural exchange, Metalsmiths Linking. He recently completed an artist residency in Portugal where he explored landscape inspired forms. Jim’s artwork was selected for Metalsmith magazine’s Exhibition in Print, ‘Fresh’. His artwork has been featured in several books, Humor in Craft, 500 Art Necklaces, On Body and Soul: Contemporary Armor to Amulets and most recently in Cast. His artwork resides in collections in the United States, Japan and was awarded Honorable Mention in the Cheongju Craft Biennale, South Korea and was accepted into Schmuck as well as being exhibited in the Taiwan International Metals Crafts Competition.

Brigitte Martin
Martin created the online social network CRAFTHAUS in 2008 to foster camaraderie and professional exchange within the international craft community. As the site’s editor, she connects the membership with the larger craft world, while offering a place to show work and discuss thoughts and ideas about craft. Martin founded a Craft Think Tank in 2011 and continues to organize the annual convenings in cooperation with the American Craft Council. Martin published Humor in Craft, which won the FINALIST award at the 2012 USA Best Book Awards and a Gold Medal at the Independent Publisher Book Awards in 2013. Martin curates and juries exhibitions nationally and she is a regularly contributing writer for American Craft Magazine. Martin is president of SNAG and a public speaker on topics of social networking, online community, artist development and art entrepreneurship.

My brooch is a koi fish. My inspiration piece from the Halstead kit was the sterling silver “polka dot” grid. It made me think of feathers and fish scales, and my koi fish design was born. I thinned the brass sheet, and cut corresponding “scales” to alternate with the sterling silver so that the final fish could be in a white, gold, and black color scheme, like a “real” koi fish. I found a vintage brass button with a tiny frog on top, which I thought would be perfect to live in the lilypond with my koi fish. The fish head snaps open (put a fingernail under the edge and pop it up), and the frog button can be safely “hidden” inside the mesh head, or swim ahead of the koi mouth attached by the kit chain and jump rings. On the back side, I etched a lily pond design, and bezel set a leopard frog cloisonné as a nod to my primary work as an enamel artist.

Hidden; out of sight; concealed. Within one in eight women is a small undetectable growth in the breast slowly germinating to the point of destruction. It lays in wait in our mothers, sisters, grandmothers and aunts. For eight years I watched my aunt struggle to become a survivor of breast cancer. Two years ago she lost her war and became a casualty of the breast cancer curse that plagues our times. This piece is a reliquary to the strength, grit and determination of the one in eight. Women who will face or have faced the traumatic battle against breast cancer with unfathomable grace and dignity. Hidden behind one of the eight elements in this brooch is the breast cancer ribbon charm that dangled daily from her charm bracelet.

Using chasing and repoussé this intricate piece represents something hidden and guarded. The face on the front of the brooch is inspired by Asian Guardian door knockers and sculpture. The Guardian holds a key and has one vigilant eye and one found object, inward-looking eye. Hidden from view behind the Guardian is a simple integrated door which also serves as a decorative element. Behind the door and inside the Guardian is a second element: a pendant that is not obvious because everything that makes this pendant wearable is concealed within the pendant itself. There is also juxtaposition in the materials and style used for the two separate elements. The exterior is a bold face using non-precious materials while the pendant is made from silver with a simple form using texture and negative space to make a cage. The discovery of looking beneath the bold exterior layers to find the hidden element and all the interconnected parts makes the piece whole.

Taking inspiration from both the natural world and industrial aesthetics, I find the play between somewhat rigid forms and natural materials to help push myself to explore additional ways of displaying those interactions in a wearable item.

Capturing Curiosity: The Secret of the Old Clock
What every girl should long to be… this clever and capable girl, who was not one to gossip, possessed the ability to be bold and brave while helping people who were in trouble. Nancy Drew has inspired many generations and filled many heads with dreams of solving mysteries or discovering hidden clues. The spirit of confidence and curiosity are the treasure that is contained in the pages of the Nancy Drew series. This brooch celebrates the detectives in all of us. From the backside a panel opens up to expose the spine of the first book of the series with a stone setting where the magnifying glass should be, and if you pull up on the top portion and rotate it, you will gain access to the imperative illumination (flashlight) contained within.

“Trinacria” is inspired by the triskelion symbol found on the Sicilian flag comprised of 3 bent legs, the head of Medusa and 3 wheat ears. Hidden deep inside is a piece of lava rock from Mount Etna, an active volcano on the eastern coast of Sicily. This hidden lava rock is discovered as you work your way down through the layers, revealing bones of the triskelion and the skull of Medusa. The skull and bones are not only characteristic of my style of work with anatomy, but they also represent the destructive nature of one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Hidden with the lava rock is a sparkling surprise that symbolizes the beautiful, but dangerous allure of Mount Etna.